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The Island Queen. By R. M. Ballantyne. (Nisbet and Co.)—In

this " Tale of the Southern Ocean " Mr. Ballantyne plunges in medics res. He describes to us an open boat with its starving occupants. These are soon reduced to the three who are to be the heroes and heroine of the tale,—Dominick Regonda and his brother and sister, Pauline and Otto. These manage to get ashore on a little island, and then-we begin one of those " Crtume " stories of which the interest is inexhaustible. Other actors appear on the scene, and are wrecked, and some of the survivors come on shore. But we need not pursue Mr. Ballantyne's narrative any further. All readers who know him will expect, and will find, a stirring story, abounding in incidents, vigorously told, and pointing an excellent moral.